Music Recs Round I Was Feeling Narrative This Time

Erin McKeown
Her voice is something of an acquired taste, but her music is really quite nifty, and very energetic. You never know quite what you're going to get with Erin. Sometimes she's a folky Grrl With A Guitar like Ani DiFranco; just as often, she's wandered back to the 1940s to put a modern spin on the Andrews Sisters or Peggy Lee (actually, the Puppini Sisters might be the better comparison). Then she zips into a jazz club before venturing, sort of, to the pop station on your radio. When she gets bored with that, she likes to toss all the instruments except her guitar, and give you something that looks to Emmylou Harris for inspiration. There's an almost punk ethos running through her music, a combination of short and to-the-point songs, and a strong DIY impulse. (I mean, don't click on any of these expecting The Clash or The Ramones, but that's the only way I can think to describe it.)

I first discovered her on one of these great little sampler CDs Nettwerk released circa 2007, called variously Indoor Picnic Music and Penny Candy, with volume numbers appended as necessary. They were--still are--on iTunes for $3.99, and while not everything is great, it's mostly good stuff. (Hey, they put Hem songs on them. You know they have to be good.) It tends to walk the line between "singer/songwriter" (yes, issues with that classification, but anyway*) and pop or "alternative."

Sing You Sinners is the one I found on one of those CDs, and it's representative of the retro sound she sometimes goes for. (If you like this, she has a whole album of 1930s-50s standards interpreted this way, also titled Sing You Sinners.)

Born to Hum is the folkiest of the ones I'm linking. I don't entirely understand it, but it's very catchy.

The next three are not exactly pop, but they're poppier than the last one. I particularly like the imagery and themes in the first two.
Life on the Moon (lyrics)
To the Stars (The more I listen to this, the more I want to vid it. I think it would fit B5 rather well, and not just because I'm currently in the throes of a rewatch. See lyrics.)
Santa Cruz (link goes to her MySpace; it's the second song in the player)

Antje Duvkot
As you know, I tend to rec songs rather than full albums, but I'm making an exception here. The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer is a concept album in the best sense of the word: all the songs (minus two reworkings of older material) are loosely related to the idea of carnivals and circuses, greasepaint and showmanship covering a broken spirit, and while they're definitely different, the same musical sensibility governs them all. When listening to one, it's hard not to listen to the rest.

I was looking up Kris Delmhorst a few days ago, and when it showed up in the "Listeners also bought" row, the picture on the front of this album caught my eye. Antje has worked with Seamus Egan, and Solas has covered several of her songs. She DOES sound like a less-Irish Solas, and particularly like their Richard Shindell-influenced later songs--unsurprisingly, Shindell produced this album. Yes, yes, the singer/songwriter scene is as incestuous as the Canadian or BBC actor scene. ;) (You may know Shindell from the supergroup Cry Cry Cry, formed with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky--who herself has made an album produced by Shawn Colvin, and featured Jonatha Brooke and Eliza Gilkyson on background vocals, who....)

The whole album is up at Grooveshark; if you search the title or her name, you'll find it. But if you really want some tracks to start with, here are four:

Ragdoll Princes and Junkyard Queens
Long Way
Scream ("I am a thumbtack and you are a tire" has to be one of the most awesome phrases ever)
Coney Island

You can also download "Vertigo" for free at her website.

Kris Delmhorst
Since I mentioned her, have a couple of her songs as well. Kris is hit-or-miss for me; sometimes what she does works for me, and sometimes she's just too...I'm not sure. Maybe too aggressively rootsy. I tend to think of her as a more country-tinged version of Meg Hutchinson, but with more range. She's also somewhat reminiscent of Catie Curtis, and if you've ever heard Redbird, you've heard her, as she was part of that outfit.

Bobby Lee
Hummingbird

Susan Enan
You remember that "Bring on the Wonder" song from S2 of Bones? Yeah, that's her. If you don't, think of her as a cross between Enya, Sarah McLachlan, and Over the Rhine. If you didn't really like that song, take heart, because the rest of her one album isn't much like it--it feels a bit more "full," for lack of a better word.

Her MySpace player has the three songs I was going to rec on it. They are "Bird," "We All Belong Here," and "Don't Worry." IMO, those are the best off the album.

Sarah McLachlan
Speaking of "Bring on the Wonder," she has a fantastic cover of it on her new album. I also like Illusions of Bliss. (Hat-tip to serendipityxxi for posting that she had a new album out!)


* At least 85% of the music I listen to was written in whole or in part by the singer of it. The other 15% is so-called "classical" music (which is another classificatory can of worms that I'm not going to open) and soundtracks. That 85% covers a fairly broad range of stuff. From what I can tell, most people use the term singer/songwriter to refer to what's left after you put the "social justice with my guitar and harmonica!" people into "folk," the people who occasionally sing in foreign languages or use non-standard instruments into "world," those who are at all radio-friendly into either "pop" or "alternative" (apparently dependent on tempo, from what I can tell), those who like the occasional banjo into "country," and those who prefer the fiddle into "bluegrass." Except of course "singer/songwriters" can and do fall into all of those categories all the time, which is why it's always an adventure to see what genre the people I like get stuck in when they release a new album.